What’s mine is yours (3)

By Shane Solanki
The Postman’s Wallet (pictured) is a beautiful handmade gift. As such, it’s expensive to buy, as often bespoke handmade products are. So you could buy one - and if you do, it’s possible that when you open it, you’ll be surprised to find some money already inside the wallet – or, even better, you could barter. The maker of the wallets, Shivraj Santhakumar, will happily trade you a wallet.  They’re a bartering tool, which he’ll trade with you if you have something you’d like to give him.

Why barter? Shivraj lives in India, a country in which it is notoriously difficult to get by without experiencing corruption. A recent phenomenon  in India is the zero rupee note; hand it to policemen when they ask you to pay them off, and hopefully they will see Mohandas Gandhi’s face, and the message “I promise to neither accept or give bribes”, and feel guilty. But guilt may not necessarily be the best way to create change; as Gandhi himself said, ‘be the change you want to see”.

This is the age of collaborative consumption; the rapid explosion in traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping reinvented through network technologies on a scale and in ways never possible before.

The advent of technologies such as the internet, and open source; a resurgence in community; our concerns about the climate and environment; our consciousness of cost and our relationship to value in stringent times; our emerging desire to create trust between strangers; peer-to-peer exchange; it’s all happening at an unprecedented rate. Hundreds of organizations, cooperatives, companies and websites are popping up monthly, encouraging us to share, and change the way we exist. Rather than simply consume, we become collaborators, creating networks which allow us to shape our futures in radically different ways. The buck stops here.

why vivacity

This is the century of the city.

Over half the world’s population now live in cities. This is projected to rise to three-quarters of all people in 2050. With population increases, this means 6.75 billion of us will be city dwellers, an increase of 3.75 billion from today. As the future success or failure of mankind lies in cities, new ways of using them are needed.

The city represents an incredible paradox. We have never been closer together physically, but we have never been further away from each other emotionally. At vivacity we celebrate city movements around the world that change and re-define the way we interact with and use cities. Whilst cities cannot cope with the numbers now and the resultant strain on the world’s natural resources and eco-systems are already painfully evident, we believe that human spirit and endeavor will overcome, as it has done before.

vivacity promotes city movements that are connecting people & creating new types of communities. They are typically low impact, highly sociable, enabled by technology, using public and private spaces in new ways and empowering people to act locally.

vivacity promotes new ways of feeling alive, new ways of being invigorated, and new things to be a part of. We call it grassroots stuff in the city. We hope you get involved and share your experiences with us.

who we are

Andy Marks vivacity founder and editor

Social entrepreneur, lecturer, writer and curator, Andy Marks is an agent of positive social change practicing at the intersection or fault-line of business, society and culture. Andy is the founder of research and consultancy network Salad Worldwide, an advisor to some of the world’s leading companies on Corporate Responsibility and an advisor to a number of non-profit organizations. Andy is an expert on grass roots city movements, and a founding partner of an upcycling enterprise launching in 2010.

Julian Broadhead contributor

With a background in advertising, branding and corporate responsibility, Julian works with blue-chip companies from a wide range of industries and sectors, advising on strategy and new ways of connecting with people. He is currently developing a number of new opportunities in the environmental sector, with a particular emphasis on making environmental action more accessible.

Shane Solanki – contributor/distributor/carburettor/carbon-ara

Artist, writer, performer, producer and director, Shane’s first short film was commissioned by the BBC and directed by Peter Cattaneo. His first record was produced by Mercury Prize Winner Talvin Singh. He worked for years to forge the unique identity of independent record label Ninja Tune. We at Vivacity like to think of him as a grass roots detective, covertly operating under the pseudonym of the Last Mango in Paris; imagine him skulking around the world in a beige macintosh, recording and documenting our shift into a society where social responsibility and public creativity are norms.

contribute

become a vivacity scout

As more and more of us live in urban areas, individuals and communities can feel overwhelmed and isolated by the sheer intense-city of it all.

However we at vivacity believe that human spirit and endeavor will overcome as it has done so many times before. That is why we are celebrating movements around the world that are changing and re-defining the way we interact with the city. We would like to hear from you about grassroots movements or activities that bring people together face to face and use cities in new ways. The more original and imaginative the better.

Please email us describing a movement you would like to see on vivacity using a maximum of 300 words. info@vivacity.me